The Secret Truth

♕ ♚

“I cannot believe you didn’t know the Lord of High Gardens was living amongst the common realm this whole time!” Baekhyun exclaimed, pulling on Junmyeon’s sleeve.

The sun was barely up, and the two fairies were walking down the still sleepy town, heading in the direction of Jongdae’s place, to check up on him.

“Of course I knew, Baekhyun,” Junmyeon blew a raspberry, “who do you think I am?” he added, and the other gasped. “Chanyeol’s handwriting may be terrible, but that never stopped me from doing my work!”

“As for a scribe, his handwriting truly is disastrous,” the royal fairly mumbled, and then stopped dead in his tracks, “what do you mean you knew?! THEN WHY HAVEN’T YOU SAID ANYTHING?! Why did you act so surprised yesterday?!”

Junmyeon burst out laughing, waking a drunkard they were just passing, and grabbed his friend by a hand to pull he forward. 

“We’re on schedule here, don’t slow us down,” he chuckled, “and of course, I knew! I just couldn’t say anything, you know the rules. We cannot interfere,” he said and shoot the other a look that said it all. “I was excited when I told you yesterday, because one thing is reading Chanyeol’s notes, another is having a dead person brought to life in front of your eyes. You should’ve seen him there, standing all mighty, admitting that he was the Lord everyone thought was dead. It was amazing,” Junmyeon whispered, and his eyes shone.

“This is something I could have never imagined,” Baekhyun replied, “it changes everything…” he mumbled as they reached Jongdae’s hut, “I really hope our plan works out, Junmyeon,” he added, as they opened the door inside the place.

“Me too, Baekhyun, me too,” Junmyeon nodded his head.

They looked around, but there was no one except the sleeping children. Junmyeon frowned, and quickly climbed up the ladder onto the roof. But it was empty as well.

“Where is he, Junmyeon?” Baekhyun asked, coming back from the outside, where we went around the building.

“He doesn’t seem to be anywhere here…” Junmyeon mumbled, and suddenly paled, horror painting on his face, “Baekhyun,” he stuttered in a quiet voice, “what if… what if he never came back for the night?”

Baekhyun inhaled loudly, and a second later, without exchanging any words, they just stormed out of the house, running towards the castle.

♕ ♚

Minseok stretched, turning in his satin sheets. Sun hit his face, and he frowned a little, rubbing his eyes slowly. Upon opening them, he blinked a few times, adjusting to the bright day. The sheets on the other side of the bed were messy, the white fabric folded, and the pillow still hollow from the imprint of a head. Minseok smiled softly to himself, and lifted his eyes higher, in the direction of the window.

There, amongst the silk curtains stood a silhouette of a person.

Minseok was about to open his lips to say something, when his gaze fell on the person’s reflection in the mirror on the wall. Words died on his tongue, and his heart stopped beating for a second.

“J—Jongdae?” he whispered in a hoarse voice.

Minseok could see the other’s muscles tense, and his face pale. The boy slowly turned around, and although he looked almost exactly the same like the person Minseok went to sleep with, there was that one difference. Eyes. In front of him stood Jongdae, his Jongdae, sun kissed skin, dark brown eyes, and hair burnt by the rays of sun.

The boy in front of his opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, until he suddenly started breathing faster than normal, and Minseok realized he was panicking. He moved to quickly get out of bed, when he realized he was . Quickly wrapping he sheets over his waist, he walked up to Jongdae, placing a hand on the other’s shoulder.

“Look at me, Jongdae,” he whispered, calmly, “Breath in, breath slowly,” he kept on speaking, his voice soft, “everything is just fine. You are safe here,” he added, slowly starting to move his hand up and down the other’s arm, “I won’t let anything happen to you. You are safe here. Nothing bad will happen to you. Look at me, Jongdae,” he smiled softly, as their eyes met, “trust me, like you did last night, okay?” he smiled wider, “you are safe here with me. No one will harm you.”

As he was talking to Jongdae, the boy started calming down, his breathing coming back to stabilized.

“I will keep you safe, here, Jongdae. I promise,” he smiled, and Jongdae swallowed, “breath in and breath out. Exactly, you see. You’re doing great. Come, sit down,” Minseok wrapped his arm around the boy’s tiny waist and lead him to sit in an armchair.

“Thank you,” Jongdae mumbled weakly, focused on keeping his eyes on Minseok, and his breathing steady.

“I am going to change now —“ the prince spoke, and instantly felt a tight grab on his elbow, “no one can come in here without my permission, Jongdae,” he smiled, reading the younger’s worries from his face, “as I promised, you will be safe here. I am going to put something on, and I will be right back with you. Don’t leave. Wait for me, okay?”

Jongdae nodded, letting go of the prince’s arm.

“Here,” Minseok smiled, upon taking a step back, “eat something,” he suggested, grabbing an apple from the table and giving it to the thief.

“Thank you,” Jongdae mumbled, taking the red fruit.

♕ ♚

Minseok closed the door to the bathroom, and upon looking into the mirror, he let a long breath out. With shaking hands, he opened cold water and splashed his face a few times. He ran his hand through his hair, and as he observed his reflection, he found himself on the verge of screaming. But he refrained from it, remembering that he had a boy in his chambers, with whom he still had to talk. After taking a few deep breaths in and out, he put on sweatpants and white v-neck, and left the bathroom.

He was greeted with exactly the same picture he left, with Jongdae sitting uncomfortably in the chair, an apple in his hand. The only evidence of the boy ever moving and inch was in form of a bite taken out of the fruit.

Minseok realized that although it seemed warm in the room, the thief was shaking. So he quickly grabbed a blanket from one of the other chairs, and putting it over the boy’s legs, which  scared him, with an apologetic smile on his lips, Minseok sat in front of Jongdae on a small table.

“How are you?” he asked, but Jongdae didn’t replied. He was just looking the prince.

"Thank you," he mumbled finally, "for helping me... you seemed like you knew what to do very well," Jongdae pointed.

Minseok only smiled softly, "as a future king, I need to know how to help people out. Also, when I was younger, my friend would have panic attacks, so I needed to know what to do, to be able to help him..."

Jongdae nodded, taking another bite from the apple.

“Jongdae?” Minseok tried again, softer and slower this time, “do you wanna tell me what happened here?” he asked.

Once again, the thief only opened and closed his mouth, as if collecting his thoughts. Minseok was about to sigh, when Jongdae spoke quietly:

“I don’t even know—“

“I need to ask…” Minseok started, “Chen… it was… it was all the time, right?”

Jongdae looked at his hands, and only nodded his head.

“Why?” the prince whispered, “why would you do it… the things that I told you… the things we did—“ he whispered, devastated, and then his voice faded away.

“I didn’t mean to,” Jongdae confessed, “how was I supposed to know you were the prince?” he asked, still not looking up, “the first lie belongs to you…”

“I lied to protect my life,” Minseok growled, quickly recollecting himself, “how can you expect me to have told you about my identity?!”

Jongdae swallowed, nodding his head again, “I don’t expect anything from you… What I did… I did because for the first time in a long time I got a chance to be selfish… and to see what have been taken away from me,” he whispered barely audibly.

They were sitting in silence for a few moments, Jongdae battling with his thoughts, Minseok trying to understand the situation.

“You are not the only person who opened up yesterday,” Jongdae finally spoke, looking up from the floor to meet the prince’s gaze, “I shared my biggest secret with you, Minseok. And there is no taking it back,” he said, and his voice trembled, “you were never supposed to know who I was… you said it yourself, that we would never meet again… coming here yesterday, do you think I was prepared to see you in crown? Do you think I was planning on letting everything that happened happen? I have never intended to do so. I never intended nor planned to have heard the things I did. But Minseok, whatever you are doing here, if any of this is really for me,” Jongdae pointed at himself, “you might be doing it for all the wrong reasons…”

Minseok looked Jongdae in the eyes for some time, before he smiled softly, “don’t you worry you pretty head, my thief,” he whispered, “my reasons should be of no concern to you.”

Jongdae’s look looked broken.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were you… why did you pretend to be someone else?”

“Why did you pretend to be someone else?” Jongdae fired back, “to protect yourself… you never trusted me enough to confess, and I…” he stopped talking, his thoughts drifting away.

“But you told me truth much heavier than this, didn’t you?” Minseok whispered, as if someone was listening, “Lord of High Gardens?”

Jongdae fell back in the armchair, focusing his eyes on the window.

“What is the difference between these two secrets, my little thief?”

Jongdae looked back directly into Minseok’s eyes, and everything is him ached.

“Why do you keep calling me yours?”

Minseok smiled softly, “aren’t you, though? Am I not your prince? Are you not part of my kingdom?”

Jongdae narrowed his eyes, and then loosened them again, “I guess I am…” they sat in silence again, until Jongdae spoke up, “I never told you that I was me, because I was afraid. Would you really want a thief in your castle? Considering that we were never to see each other again, tell you who I really was, in the spur-of-the moment, seemed like a safer idea. Plus,” he added, “I just really wanted to tell someone… it’s hard having everyone think you’re dead, when you’re pretty much alive, just forgotten by everyone…”

“I am sorry,” Minseok whispered, placing his hand on Jongdae’s, and he chuckled quietly, “I guess we’re even now,” he looked up at the younger and smiled, “you know my secret, and I know yours.”

“I guess… aren’t you mad, tho?”

“I wish you had told me the truth, but I need to accept your lies. After all, as you pointed, I lied as well. Whatever the way, we both did it for the same reason… to protect ourselves.”

Jongdae smiled at Minseok, and the prince sighed happily. He was about to say something, when it hit him.

“So that’s how you know Junmyeon!” he screamed out, quickly covering his mouth.

Jongdae frowned, confused, “how do you know Junmyeon?!”

“He and that other fairy, Baekhyun, or actually only Baekhyun, were the reason I threw this ball… they… well, we had an encounter a few weeks ago…”

“So do you… do you know about… magic?” Jongdae whispered, his eyes growing.

Minseok chuckled, remembering how the fries turned his oppressors into mice.

“I do know about it,” he nodded.

“That was how I ended up coming here in the first place,” Jondgdae confessed, “Junmyeon offered me three wishes…”

“And your wish was to come to the ball?”

“My wish was to live before I die,” the younger smiled, “the spell worked just fine… but it wore off the moment the sun rose… I was supposed to be back home by that time… that is what I meant telling you my true identity was safer… even if anyone was to look for me, they’d never found the Lord of High Gardens,” he smiled sadly, “everything was going just fine, until…” he stopped, suddenly becoming red. He quickly adverted his gaze from the prince, who only cleared his throat, as his eyes drifted to the bed.

“It is… It was… I mean…It’s something…,” Minseok started mumbling, but it all became a mess.

A loud bang on the balcony adverted their attention to something else, and as Minseok stood up to check what it was, two figures stumbled into his room.

“Minseok!” Baekhyun yelled, opening his arms widely to hug the prince, “how is my boy doing today?!” he asked, but once his eyes fell on Jongdae, he quickly passed the prince, yelling to his friend, “JUNMYEON! I FOUND HIM, HE HER—“ and then he stopped, upon noticing the mess on and around the bed, with some of their clothes still on the floor, “oh… OHHHH!” he gasped.

“Jongdae!” Junmyeon yelled, rushing towards the thief, “I was so worried! Are you alright? Has the spell gone away fine? Why didn’t you get back home by sunrise?! It was just reckless and stupid of you to stay here!”

“I…” Jongdae opened his mouth, but then his cheeks went violent red again.

“I think I know why he never made it home, Myeon,” Baekhyun spoke, and as the other fairy looked at him, he just mentioned towards the mess on the floor.

“Oh…” Junmyeon gasped, and then looked between Minseok and Jongdae, “you guys are quick,” he pointed, and both the thief and the prince went beetroot red, and became a laughing and mumbling mess.

Baekhyun laughed, and Junmyeon just smiled.

“Anyway,” the fairy clapped his hands, “we should get going, let’s go, Jongdae,” he smiled, stretching his hand.

“Wait, what?” Minseok frowned, and then they heard knocking at the door.

“Minseok!” the queen’s voice rang in everyone’s ears, and all four of them became alarmed.

“Get me out, get me out!” Jongdae mumbled, grabbing on Junmyeon’s hand.

They jogged towards the open window, and the door to the chambers opened.

“Jongdae, wait!” Minseok yelled quietly, grabbing the younger by the hand, “will you come back? Will you come tonight?” He asked, his eyes pleading.

“I—I don’t know,” Jongdae mumble, looking between the princes eyes and his hand on his wrist.

“Jongdae, we really gotta go” Junmyeon rushed him, standing at the balcony, listening to the incoming steps of the queen.

“Please,” Minseok pleaded quietly, never letting go.

“Minseok, I—I cannot. Sorry, I can’t,” he whispered, and pulling his wrist away, he quickly grabbed Junmyeon’s extended hand. Before Minseok got to say anything else they disappeared, just as the his mother walked in.

♕ ♚

Just as he said, Jongdae didn’t come back that night, and Minseok spent the whole night on the balcony, looking towards the city.

*ekhem ekhem* drama or fluff?

#2 : How did you guys enjoy it? Please, comment and share your thoughts! I wanan know what you think of this story after the long hiatus I put you all on some time ago ~~